ANGUS, James T. A Respectable Ditch : A History of the Trent-Severn Waterway 1833-1920. Kingston / Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, (1988).First Printing. Pp. (5),[vi]-xiv,(2),3-455,(3), including plates. Illustra ted in black and white. 8vo, decorated brown cloth with black lettering to spine. "In some respects the history of the Trent-Severn Waterway resemblesthe history of Canada. One parallels the other. The same political and eco nomic tensions that have constantly beset the country can be identified in the canal's story: defence against American invasion, free trade versus tariff protection, private enterprise or government intervention, the problem of moving vast quantities of grain from the central plains to deep-water ports, freight rates, energy production and who should control it, and the obsessive preoccupation with federal and provincial responsibilities. What follows is a record of how these national questions affected the development of a waterway that the country could ill afford and only a handful of people wanted. Consequently, this is not a story about transportation or engineering. It is a book about politics -- the politics of dreamers." - from the dustjacket. Contents: I: The Colonial Years, 1833-41: 1. James Bethune's Waterway; 2. The Bobcaygeon Lock; 3. The Question of Routes; 4. Improvements on the Inland Waters; 5. Improvements on the River Trent; 6. Stoppage of the Works. II: The Union Years, 1841-67: 7. Hamilton Killaly and the Board ofWorks; 8. The Timber Slides; 9. The Lumbermen's Committee; 10. The Union L ocks. III: The Macdonald Years, 1867-96: 11. The Ontario Locks; 12. A Crucial Debate; 13. A Barge Canal; 14. Buckhorn, Burleigh, and Fenelon Falls; 15. Tom S. Rubidge; 16. The Trent Valley Canal Commission. IV: The Laurier Years, 1986-1911: 17. The Conversion of Wilfrid Laurier; 18. The Peterborough-Lakefield Division; 19. The Hydraulic Lift Lock; 20. The Simcoe-Balsam Lake Division; 21. R.B. Rogers; 22. Mulock's Madness; 23. Hydroelectric Power and the Port Hope Canal; 24. The Ontario-Rice Lake Division; 25. Kerry and Culverwell. V: The Borden Years, 1911-20: 26. The Western Outlet; 27. The Port Severn Lock; 28. The Marine Railways; 29. The Couchiching Lock. With bibliography and index. Very good in crisp dustjacket. 25.00